I’m just a little bit of an accuracy freak when it comes to my timepieces, whether we’re talking wristwatches or clocks! I normally use the NIST time servers at “time.gov” for setting timepieces, and for checking accuracy.

With that fact established, I have noted the following regarding recent watch purchases...

1: My new Marathon watch is within 5 seconds of the “correct” time since new!
2: One of my two Seiko solar watches is within 15 seconds after having been set several months ago!
3: The other, less expensive Seiko (also solar powered) is running right at 45 seconds fast.
4: The new Citizen recently purchased from our own David Truong is hanging in there at 15 seconds fast also.

So what’s the point of this post??? I’m not quite sure, other than a high price doesn’t ALWAYS mean more accurate! The Marathon that I just bought was nearly $800.00; the Citizen was under $200.00, and both Seikos under $100.00 off of fleaBay... While it would appear that the Marathon is the most accurate, I’ve also had it for the least amount of time! (I also realize that ONLY my Marathon is rated for depths of up to 300m under water... so that adds to the cost!)

I have a cheapo Chinese watch. Given as a prize from NRA when I topped out my life membership to Benefactor. It is about one minute fast since the last new battery put in last fall. My standard is this computer which matches one of those automatic clocks.

I have 3 solar atomic watches, 2 Casio and 1 Casio Protrek.
They connect to the WWVB time signal radio station near Fort Collins, Colorado every night around midnight.

I have not manually set the time for any of these watches in 6 years.

if your looking for high accuracy try this forum

https://forums.watchuseek.com/f9/

“A high price doesn’t always mean accuracy.”

You’re right.

A relatively cheap battery watch will generally be more accurate than an expensive mechanical watch.

I’ve had quite a few different watches.

Rolex, Breitling, Omega, Cartier... all mechanical. Depending if it was face up, on its side, or face down while sleeping, changed the time differently. All mechanical watches will not hold time like a battery powered watch, but the way they work is fascinating.
Of the mechanical watches, Rolex and Omega held the best time. I would go as far to say the Omega even out performed the Rolex.

Battery or solar powered Citizen (multiple styles) Luminox, Oakley, Movado...

Citizen trumps them all, by far. Most of the models I have had were within a few seconds per year. Oakley was very accurate as well.
The luminox (my only watch) I wear daily now, but it loses seconds per week, and a lot of them. Very disappointed.
The Movado doesn’t have a second hand, so it is hard to tell.

My Apple Watch is always tits on. No setting, adjusting, nothing.

I am a little obsessed with watches and accuracy. I love automatics, there is something incredibly satisfying about having a mechanical watch powered by me that keeps exquisite time. The smooth second hand sweep and feeling the rotor spin is unique.

For me the radio and satellite eco drives are boring. Yes, their accuracy is wonderful and it’s neat to see my two eco drive radio atomic watches tick away in perfect synchronization but they just don’t get me excited like a good automatic.

You are right you don’t have to pay a lot for an accurate watch. My most expensive Seiko (a JDM model with a 6R15 movement) isn’t my most accurate. I have a few autos with Swiss movements that I didn’t pay very much for but keep shockingly good time....they are rapidly becoming my favorites.

I have zero interest in a smart watch.

I have be obsessed with watch accuracy for a long time. My first accurate watch was a Bulova Accutron, the 1st gen model. Accurate to 1 min a month!

Most accurate mechanical watch when new was an Invicta 8926 diver (I paid around $60 for it when they first came out)

Current most accurate watches in my collection. Bulova precentist and a Tissot expert T-Touch.

Before the internet I would tune in WWV on a shortwave radio for accurate time to check set watches.

I am a watch guy.
When people ask what watch They should buy that will be the most accurate I tell the to go with a Quartz.
I tell them a 20 dollar quartz watch is more accurate than a 20,000 dollar Rolex.
Most of the watches I own are mechanical automatic or hand wind. I love the mechanics that make them work.
Most of the watches I own are COSC certified. The definition of this is a watch movement that is built to a certain specification then tested and must be accurate to within +6 to -4 seconds per day.

Having had two Rolex's, a Daytona and a GMT II, I've always said the quickest way to tell an authentic Rolex from a fake is that the fake keeps time.

 
I am an accuracy freak as well. I have a home-built atomic clock, sort of. It is a FreeBSD machine that receives NMEA input (via a 9 pin serial port) from a GPS receiver on the roof. This receiver is similar to one used on boats, in that is provides not only a time stamp but also a PPS signal (precision positioning system, also known as military GPS). GPS satellites carry 4 atomic clocks. NTP (the network time protocol, one of the older TCP/IP protocols), has drivers built in for NMEA input, which the GPS provides. NTP grooms the computer clock towards accuracy. I continuously graph it every 5 minutes, and the accuracy remains within +/- 3 microseconds of UTC (that's millionths of a second). Often it is in the range of nanosecond accuracy. Every other device on the home network that has the ability to specify a time server (routers, switches, cameras, other computers, etc) get their time from this machine. The other devices are running NTP, but due to network jitter, only achieve sub-millisecond accuracy.
 
For a wristwatch, I wear a HAQ watch (high accuracy quartz). HAQ is certified at +/- 10 seconds/year. My particular watch has remained within one second of UTC for 2.5 years now, since the initial setting against the NTP server.

Mechanical watches, like Rolex, are “chronometers” - not guaranteed to be accurate, but to be consistent - as in, will lose 2 seconds per day, every day.

When we used to navigate by sun and star observations, knowing the exact time of the observation was critical. Therefore, having three chronometers, and knowing the number of days since set to a standard, would allow calculation of exact time (averaging among the three). And coupled with observation of, say, sun elevation and bearing at “noon” would let you figure out latitude.

So I’m wearing an Oyster Perpetual Date, that has worked for the past 34 years, with two tune ups.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
My Apple Watch is always tits on. No setting, adjusting, nothing.

As is my Samsung. Internet or carrier accuracy, BTW, is based on an atomic reference clock, and depending on your connection the precision is 0.02-0.10 seconds (0.01-0.05 seconds, either way). Until the power goes out.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
My Apple Watch is always tits on. No setting, adjusting, nothing.

My iPhone was 1 hour and 12 minutes off the other day, no idea how or why, but it really messed me up as I assumed my watch was wrong.

Here's an interesting perspective on mechanical watch accuracy from Ikuo Tokunaga. If you don't know who he is, see the second link (you'll need to translate from Japanese) for all the watches and designs he was responsible for shown in the museum area.

"As for the accuracy of the mechanical watches, daily rate is about + or - 20 sec./day on the medium-class watches, it will be about + or - 40 sec./day in case of the popular-class watches, and about + or - 5 sec./day in case of the high precision watches such as chronometer."

https://www.thewatchsite.com/2...hanical-watches.html

https://www.tokunaga.ne.jp/

quote:

Originally posted by 1lowlife:
I have 3 solar atomic watches, 2 Casio and 1 Casio Protrek.
They connect to the WWVB time signal radio station near Fort Collins, Colorado every night around midnight.

I have not manually set the time for any of these watches in 6 years.

I have a Casio as well. Never have to adjust it, even for DST. It does it itself. Had it for at least 7-8 years, changed battery once a couple months ago. AIR, paid $70 for it.

Never take it off, even when swimming.

You guys probably are familiar with this, but for anyone reading this topic and is not aware of, Time.gov has been around a long time.

FWIW I was recently made aware of Time.is. It’s interesting, check it out, it also gives Unix time ( I’d never heard of that before). Poke around on the site, click on the “About” link at the bottom.

Just another way to get the exact time.

The Citizen Titanium watch Dave sold a few (five?) years ago has stayed with one minute of accuracy (1 MOA )

I set it when received and whenever hearing the time on the radio or looking at it on my phone, the watch shows the same time, down to the minute.

quote:

Originally posted by 1lowlife:
I have 3 solar atomic watches, 2 Casio and 1 Casio Protrek.
They connect to the WWVB time signal radio station near Fort Collins, Colorado every night around midnight.

I have not manually set the time for any of these watches in 6 years.

Yes, I have one of those Casio solar atomic watches also. I didn't bother mentioning it since it is ALWAYS dead-on the second!